Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-08-05
IN THE WRONG ROOM

NEW 1OIk City luClC HoPP~"~
other night a mysterious incident
that has kept at least three people
in a state of excitement bordering
on hysteria ever since. On the
fifth floor has lived for over a year
a gentleman we call Alberta mod
est, retiring clerk in bank. lie
has lately been introduced into q
little private poker game carried on
in the house, and during session
in the poker-rOOm has imblOed
more whisky sours than his gentle,
meek architecture is able to con-
troll, On the fourth floor OF this
hotel, directly under Albert's room,
there resides Helen, a relative OF
the proprietor, and Emma, her
friend, who is a Jersey girl, study
ing art here in New York. Emma
Is fundamentally engaged, and she
frequently goes to theatres with
her fiance, aud, returning, has a
bit of supper in the restaurant. In
the vestibule, to which Emma is es-
corted to take the elevator, there
10 always a last little talk. Then
Emma goes up to her roommate,
and the engaged man, full Of pleas
ing anticipations of the hour when
he'll take the elevator, too, turns
up mis- collar and goes out into the
silent street.
Albert has a roommate ana
chum, who, however, has nothing
TO do with this story. Saturd9
night was inclement, and AlFi''
after dinner, smoked a Gig j"
the reading.room aud then v'n' up
TO the little room of tn p"riOi'
where the friendly gare was ID
progress. He played win '"i'a
BILE luck until II, wbA' with a last
whisky Sd1, = .a SOaI T.. ne We. not tight. He
Knows he was s'epy and that the
elevator boy 'as slumOrouS' A'
all events = went to his room'
~lt csI hi, Aum was sound asleep
~ nod Albert pulled of his
md threw them about the
U,ooa damned things around gen
~, wanted to wind his watch,
- couldn't find the key, thought
ed find a spare one in the bureau
drawer, went to turn up the dimly-
burning gas, but turned 1t short of,
said piously, "Cuss the key" bolt
ed the door, turned down the clothes
and slipped into bed.
He was Just floating off into a
dream haunted by fulls and flushes
when "a female voice so near his
face that he felt the warm breath
on his cheek, said:
"What a TOOL you are, EN-; you
have been talking at that elevator
until you are cold as frog
The Precipitation broke out all
over him; he lay paralyzed. lie
strained his eyes into the darkness
till they became used to the sur
roundings. Sure enough, the win
dow was not in the right place 1t
should be; be made out a sofa
where it had ought to be, and made
up his mind that he was where he
should not be, and was a lost man.
On a chair By the window was a
pile of white stuff, a monument
erected to the cardinal virtues by
a fair young girl. lie made out
the futing on a petticOat, the
strings on some other garment, a
wire sort Of cage on the 1oor.-
Great SCOTS he was in the wrong
room, the room Of woman--in her
very bed, and, oh Understanding
conclusion, she had got there be-
tore him. There are no words IN
which to picture his condition and
the frame of mind in which that
picture should be mounted. He
Law like the dead, revolving like a
buzz.saw what he should do, till
his hair turned.
Then the lady who had addressed
him evidently thought she had been
too harsh, for she whooped over to-
ward the wall and said:
"Never mind, dear; hug up to
my back and get warm"
Albert couldn't tell under oath If
he obeyed this suggestion or not
but certainly silence fell on that
deeply sgitated young man, who
lay counting his heartbeats. A
long breath, just bordering on a
snore, another regular, even flow OF
nasal music. The friend of Emma
slept. 4 'DOn Juan slipped hall
smothered from the bed" so Albert,
bathed in a cold perspiratlon from
head to foot, glided from between
the sheets. Swiftly and silently he
gathered his effects. He had to
carry even bis hat, for his hair
stuck up so he couldn't get it on
his head. He stole to the door, bis
great toe cracking OmlnOusly ii
Stygian darkness. With trembling
fingers he drew back the bolt, and,
as a cyclone sweeps down on a
Western town, be dashes down the
corridor, up the stairs, around a
corner, and in a bysterical collapse
fell into his own bed nearly faint
ing. On slept the gentle woman
who kept a warm back for heI
friends. When q cOmmOtlOn in